Korean actress Lee Young-ae is enjoying a Chinese popularity boom.
Women who want Lees eyes, are standing in lines to see plastic surgeons, and an elementary school even named itself after Lee.
The Chinese media has heaped praise on Lee for her humility, as well as for the aid she has given to Chinas underprivileged. This is in contrast to its previous worries over Korean pop culture influences.
According to a local newspaper yesterday, Chipao Elementary School in Rangchuan named itself the Lee Young-ae School, after it received a donation of $50,000 from Lee.
The school, about 150 km away from Hangzhou, was scheduled to be closed because of the run-down condition of its facilities. If that had happened, its 187 students would have had to commute to another school about 10km away.